"Surviving in America" documents the history of the seven historic African American communities in Baltimore County, Maryland: Halethorpe, Relay (not an African American historic community), Oella, Granite, and three older communities in Randallstown, Maryland: Church Lane, Oakland Park Road, and Winands Road.
This book takes an indepth look at how Halethorpe became an African
American community; where African Americans resided in the area before
1920 when the community was being built. It also looks at the William
family, the only African American family that has been residing on
South Rolling Road in Relay since 1863. And a really close look at
Oella, known generally as the home of Benjamin Banneker, the first
Black man of Science. The book reveals that several other African
Americans resided in this mill town generations before Banneker - the
Hall family who was released from slavery in 1690 and given 13 1/2 acres
of land that their descendants still reside on today, and the Brown
family who was released from slavery in the 1700s and given 10 acres of
land, whose descendants also still reside their. The African American
church in the Area, Mt. Gilboa AME Church has been in the community
since 1799, and still active today. Granite, is a community where the
Worthingtons took an "army of slaves" during the slavery era to work
in the quarries, and the three older communities of Randallstown,
where the church, Union Bethel AME church has been active since 1822.